About Pentominoes and about this Story, About the Artwork: A Challenge to the Reader, and Chapter One Summary

"Chasing Vermeer" is a fictional book that teaches young readers about art, writing, math, and history in a way that is fun and exciting. Through an art theft and other mysterious happenings, the main characters, Petra and Calder, become friends, grow to be more courageous, and solve the art crime.

About Pentominoes and About this Story explains how a set of pentominoes works. These twelve geometric shapes are used to create rectangles and to study the world in a geometric way. The author compares the story she has written to pentominoes. Many clues would be given, and by the end of the book the clues would lead to understanding much like...